““Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

“In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.

“If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other.” (Leviticus 25:8-14)

God cares about those who have nothing left to give. In ancient Israel, people could sell their property or even themselves if they became impoverished. But every fifty years all those so enslaved were supposed to be freed during the year of Jubilee. Property was supposed to return to its original owner.

During the time of Moses and Joshua the land had been distributed to the tribes and families of Israel. It was supposed to remain with those tribes and families for all time. Unfortunately, though God told the Israelites to “proclaim liberty throughout the land” every year of Jubilee, the harsh reality of Israelite society was that Jubilee never came.

It was not only idolatry that led God to bring the Babylonians against the Israelites. God also sent them into captivity because the powerful had oppressed the weak. They never set anyone free. They had never returned a bit of land. So the Babylonians took only a minority of Israelites into captivity: the upper classes who had oppressed the poor by never giving them their Jubilees. Those they had oppressed were left behind. Freedom finally came as the oppressors were dragged away. God granted mercy with his judgment.

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